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Renal Calculi (Kidney Stones)
(NK014)

Introduction

Nephrolithiasis (kidney stones, renal calculi) is the development of stones within the kidney that may then be passed through the ureters into the bladder and excreted with the urine. This process of stone passage may be painless if the stones are very small, or may cause significant pain (renal colic).

Nephrolithiasis is a common disorder affecting between 5-15% of Americans. Most stones seem to occur during the fourth and fifth decades of life in men and somewhat earlier in women

While kidney stones can cause significant pain during the acute episode, the risk of kidney failure is very small and occurs only with obstruction of both kidneys or the obstruction of a remaining kidney when one is not functioning or has been removed.

While the majority (80-90%) of stones eventually pass without intervention, the remaining stones require intervention known as lithotripsy or, rarely, surgical intervention to be removed.

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The Medifocus Guide on Nephrolithiasis provides answers to the following important questions and medical issues:


What Your Doctor Reads:

This MediFocus Guide contains an extensive listing of citations and abstracts of recent journal articles that have been published about this condition in trustworthy medical journals. This is the same type of information that is available to physicians and other health care professionals. A partial selection of journal articles that are abstracted in this MediFocus Guide includes:


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